From what I’ve seen and read, most protests begin for economic reasons (commonly inflation) and become political only once they gain critical mass and groups with explicit political views join in. This appears to be the case with many of the protests in the Middle East and with earlier protests in Burma and Tibet, for example, where the masses were protesting economic issues (high prices of basic good, etc) and those protestors were later joined by groups with Western-oriented political views (i.e., the monks in Burma joined protests that were originally in response to fuel prices). Sometimes it happens the other way around—i.e., student protests, that are explicitly political, will become a conduit for the grievances of the masses. But it’s worth remembering that in any given mass movement most of the people involved are probably completely ignorant of the political issues. In that sense, I doubt the altruistic tendencies of those involved. Most of them just want to eat/work/etc.
From what I’ve seen and read, most protests begin for economic reasons (commonly inflation) and become political only once they gain critical mass and groups with explicit political views join in. This appears to be the case with many of the protests in the Middle East and with earlier protests in Burma and Tibet, for example, where the masses were protesting economic issues (high prices of basic good, etc) and those protestors were later joined by groups with Western-oriented political views (i.e., the monks in Burma joined protests that were originally in response to fuel prices). Sometimes it happens the other way around—i.e., student protests, that are explicitly political, will become a conduit for the grievances of the masses. But it’s worth remembering that in any given mass movement most of the people involved are probably completely ignorant of the political issues. In that sense, I doubt the altruistic tendencies of those involved. Most of them just want to eat/work/etc.